Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Buried Tape Reveals Mass Arrest of Bystanders at RNC

Check out this video. As the accompanying press release notes, this video shows the arrest of over 200 people at a concert at the Harriet Island Regional Park during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. The arrests were for rioting. However, you will observe in the video that there is no riot, nor is there any sign that one is about to occur. All you see are peaceful people, families with children, sitting in a park while the police, in full riot gear, surround them. No crime occurs in this video, unless of course you include the abuse of power by the cops who made these arrests with no probable cause whatsoever.

The cameraman who recorded this outrage was arrested with all the others, but somehow he managed to bury the footage before it could be confiscated. Therefore, you and everyone else in the world can now see the video and understand what the U.S.has become: a police state.

Yes, I know, you can still walk down the street without being asked for your papers most of the time. Yes, you can still get away with criticizing the government in public. The more obvious signs of a police state are not visible, yet. They don't have to be. You know you're living in a police state when a mass of people peacefully sitting in a park, breaking no law, can be arrested for no reason. You know it because these things only happen in police states. They don't happen in free societies.

Who are these cops, I wonder. We can't see under the shields on their faces. That is too bad. I understand that many of them are not from St. Paul, but were imported from "elsewhere." There's no telling who they are. They may not even be cops. Hell, they may not even be American. Good lord (now I'm really scaring myself), they may not even be human.

But, assuming they're human, it would be nice to know who they are, where they're from. Not that I think they should be unlawfully harassed in their homes, or harmed, heaven forbid. I would just like to see them all identified, arrested, and charged with official oppression. Probable cause? We've got it right here in this video.

Of course, the true value of this video is probably not its possible use as evidence in a trial. That may be unrealistic. Its value, rather, is instructive, because it shows us what this nation has become: a police state.

The Army Times recently reported that "beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the [1st Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division] will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North."

What does this mean? It means that what has been mostly hidden up until now--the fact that the United States is a police state--may become startlingly apparent to everyone very soon ...